We need to reduce strain on Eskom

Talk about kicking a country when it’s down. Eskom’s timing is exquisite – if the object is to cause anguish and anger. Load shedding? OK – but for almost a whole week at Stage 2? The experts promised us that 2022 is going to make previous years look like tea parties when it comes to load shedding. Eskom is a mess … no matter whether its leadership was captured by the Guptas or is the newly appointed “good guys”. Like Covid, it is something we are going to have to live with.

For the foreseeable future, South Africa will not have a reliable power supply. Finish and klaar, as a police minister once put it.

So, how do we deal with it? Get generators and solar power for our houses? Those are expensive options. Rearrange our lives around our blackout periods? The latter makes more sense and will at least allow people to feel they are doing something constructive. Anything is better than sitting there feeling helpless. But what about reducing strain on Eskom by cutting our own consumption? Turn off lights when we don’t need them. Corporate SA: what about your lit-up, but empty offices?

Baby steps … which will, hopefully, lead us to the light.